Yesterday I hit a wall at the gym. The entire week I have felt a little run down and have looked really tired with these ever so lovely dark cicrles under my eyes and have felt a little crabbier than usual. These things happen though and I just kept pushing along with my regular routine. After my 5 miler yesterday(which should have been 6 but I failed to pay attention to the schedule closely enough)Mike and I were going to do legs. On a side noted Mike took a week off from running and he has done 2 runs since the rest and his knee is much better so hopefully that is all he needed. This makes me super excited to have my training partner back:)
Anyway after the 5 miler we started doing leg presses and my stomach was upset and I was crabby and when I looked to see what was next on my workout, I realized I really really didn't want to do any of it. This is very unlike me. Gym time is the time of the day I look forward to the most and I always enjoy doing legs. Mike asked if I just wanted to go home and I stubbornly said no but quickly realized he was right and I should probably listen to my body which is screaming at me to stop. I felt completely exhausted and had no energy to muster up so I somewhat reluctantly went home, had dinner and laid on the couch until going to bed at 9.
There are probably only two things that can cause me to feel this way: overtraining and low iron. This weekend I was literally moving and working non stop and in addition did both of my training runs and another full workout and I did a full workout Monday and Tuesday so my body hasn't had any rest. Exhaustion, lack of motivation and crabiness are signs of overtraining. But I was still concerned with my iron since I felt tired all week, even with caffeine. I then wondered if dark circles could be related to low iron in anyway and it turns out my hunch was right. Low iron levels result in poor oxygenation to body tissues due to lessened blood oxygenating efficiency. One of the areas this shows most of all is under the eyes where vessels tend to clot and pool, thus causing the darkening and eye circle effect. Sooo, it is my opinion that is probably a little bit of both over training and low iron that is making me feel this way.
I had a chinese salad with roast beef last night (btw the preservative free roast beef from Trader Joes is PHENOMENALLY good, best I ever had)and took an iron supplement and I already feel more energetic today. The good thing about iron is that as soon as you get it in your bloodstream, you start feeling better. I also feel I look a little less tired which is a very good thing because when you are tired and crabby the last thing you want to feel is ugly.
It is only my 4th week of marathon training so I need to make sure to address this immediately and make tweaks to my training so I don't crash and burn. I learend this lesson the hard way on several occasions so this time, I listen to my body.
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